Episode Report Card Daniel: A | Grade It Now! YOU GRADE IT I'm Kind of A Big Deal
By Daniel | Season 9 | Episode 15/16 | Aired on 09.19.2011
But there's one more person who needs to be eliminated, and Ramsay wants to know why each person left thinks she or he deserves to be in the final. Will says this is what he was born to do. Paul says tonight's service shows why he deserves it, throwing in some nonsense about destiny. Elise says she's grown the most of everyone there. "I promise to you that I am the epitome of what Hell's Kitchen is about," she says, which he calls passionate, "as ever."
Banners drop with the HK logo projected on them, the lights come up, and the first person into the final is Will. But the wrong picture is projected on the banner, some guy who's not wearing a baseball hat.
So it's down to Paul and Elise for the final, but it's hard not to see that it's going to be Elise, especially when Ramsay emphasizes that one can command a kitchen better than the other. Even Paul knows what's coming, when Ramsay says this person won't back down, no matter what. "Shit," he says.
"The person joining Will is ... Paul!" says Ramsay. Paul and Will both seem surprised, while Elise is sobbing already. Paul and Will hug her and tell her she did great, while Ramsay brings her up and tells her she shouldn't be in tears now. "I've never met anyone so resilient in all my years as you. You're Teflon. Well done," he says. She's taken off her jacket, but he tells her to keep it because she deserves it. Elise montage! Blabbering, palate, fighting, tears and boobs! "After Hell's Kitchen, I'm prepared for any obstacle that comes my way," she tells us.
So it's down to Paul and Will, and Ramsay tells them their biggest dinner service is (unsurprisingly) yet to come.
OK, you know what shows with two-hour season finales need to stop doing? The "Previously on!" scenes at the top of the second hour. Few things aggravate me more than sitting through scenes from the show we JUST watched, including scenes that we saw LESS THAN A MINUTE AGO. I can't believe I have to get angry about this sort of thing!
Anyway, Ramsay tells the two finalists to start thinking about the magic they want to create for their final dinner service. They scuttle off, with Paul getting in a dig about how Will can always be his sous-chef. There is much man-hugging and roaring from the two guys, who seem genuinely excited for each other and to be facing off against each other. In separate interviews, Will and Paul scream at us about how happy they are, with Will calling himself, "Big Will" and Paul accusing me of not believing him when he said he was a big deal. Look, it's not that I don't believe someone when he says he's a big deal. It's that I don't like someone who calls himself a big deal.